Verizon’s Google Nexus One May Be Dead

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back in january, google said they would release their nexus one smartphone for the verizon wireless network. up until this week the phone was listed as “coming soon” on google’s phone sales page.

but it looks like the nexus one’s time may have passed. in a blog post on google’s site, the company says, “in the us, if you’ve been waiting for the nexus one for verizon wireless’ network, head over to http://phones.verizonwireless.com/htc/incredible to pre-order the droid incredible by htc, a powerful new android phone and a cousin of the nexus one that is similarly feature-packed. it will be available in stores on april 29th.”

similarly, any mention of the nexus one for verizon has been scrubbed from google’s sales page, replaced by a small ad for the incredible.

the incredible is in many ways a better phone than the nexus one, so on one level this isn’t surprising. but if the nexus one is indeed toast, this is a blow to google’s strategy of creating a ‘phone first’ marketplace with the same phones available on all us carriers.

update: a verizon spokeswoman referred us to google since it “was their decision and should be theirs to comment. we didn’t cancel the phone, nor was there ever a plan for verizon wireless to sell the phone in our stores or online. google announced its plan to offer a cdma verizon of the phone said said it was for our network,” she wrote.

update 2: in a statement, a google spokesman confirmed that google “won’t be selling a nexus one with verizon, and this is a reflection of the amazing innovation happening across the open android ecosystem. verizon wireless customers who want an android phone with the power of the nexus one can get the droid incredible by htc.”